Letters to the Editor:

The Sault News
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Please get to the polls and vote yes on 2

Proposal 2 aims to protect our voting rights through an amendment to our state Constitution. It includes:

  • a statement that voting is a fundamental right and voters and poll workers cannot be harassed or intimidated

  • codifying our current ID laws which require a photo ID or signing an affidavit swearing to your identity

  • extra time for overseas military ballots to arrive as long as they are postmarked by Election Day

  • nine days of early in-person voting

  • codifying our current option of permanent absentee ballot status

  • establishes an on line absentee ballot tracking system

  • requires a minimum of one ballot drop box per municipality and one per 15,000 residents

  • states that the state legislators have no role in determining which electors get sent to the Electoral College. That is based on our votes alone.

  • audits must be run by non partisan election workers

In short, it ensures that everyone who has the right to vote gets to vote. Every citizen has the right to vote regardless of race, ethnicity, age, gender, physical ability, or anything else. There should be no barriers. Proposal 2 helps ensure there are none.

Michigan has some of the best election practices around. Proposal 2 aims to keep it that way.

Please vote yes on Prop 2 this election.

Katie OlssonRapid River

Lorinser the right choice for Michigan's First District

In the congressional race for Michigan’s 1st District, I support Dr. Bob Lorinser to replace Rep. Jack Bergman.

Dr. Lorinser started his medical career with the Indian Health Service in New Mexico. He then worked over two decades as a family physician in Marquette, before serving for 10 years in the U.S. State Department in Pakistan. In 2020, he returned to Marquette, intending to retire. Instead, when COVID-19 hit, he became medical director at the Marquette County Health Department.

The website BergmanForCongress describes Lorinser as a “career bureaucrat.” Does that list of positions sound like the resumé of a career bureaucrat? To me, it sounds like that of a man who lives by one of his declared guiding principles: service.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Rep. Bergman voted twice in Congress to overturn the will of American voters: once opposing certification of Arizona’s Electoral College votes, and again, opposing certification of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes. Only six or seven of 50 Republicans in the Senate went as far as Bergman in supporting the “Big Lie” that the election was somehow stolen, which countless investigations have shown to be untrue.

In my opinion, those votes by Bergman have helped to erode confidence of U.S. voters that our elections are fair. What a travesty!

Perhaps that badge of shame explains why Bergman has made so few appearances in the district this election cycle. Indeed, has he made any? I Googled “townhalls Jack Bergman” and found none since 2017, while the same search for Lorinser showed four townhalls just between Oct. 15 and Oct. 19 of this year.

Democracy is fragile. I ask you to vote for a man who believes that the voters’ choice shouldn’t be “de-certified” by any partisan group.

Bernie ArbicSault Ste. Marie

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Please get to the polls and vote yes on 2